MEMBER BLOG TAG: pen american center
| Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:24AM | | | | China from the 22nd Floor | Tags: Freedom of Expression, Writers in Prison, PEN American Center, PEN International, China, Hong Kong, human rights, Tiananmen Square, earthquake, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
| | | On June 4 China will face the 19th anniversary of the killing of citizens occupying Tiananmen Square. Nineteen years ago as president of PEN USA, I remember well sorting through dozens of unfamiliar Chinese names as we sought to untangle what writers had been arrested. Today there are at least 42 writers imprisoned in China.
I wake up 22 stories in the air. Most of Hong Kong is in the air with thousands of high rises shooting into the sky. I’m in a cubicle—two small beds pressed against each wall, a tiny shelf between, a TV mounted on the wall at the foot of one bed. At the head of...
| | | | | | | Monday, May 12, 2008 1:27PM | | | | OLYMPIC RELAY-- A POEM ON THE MOVE | Tags: Freedom of Expression, Writers in Prison, PEN American Center, PEN International, China, Olympics, human rights, Tiananmen Square, poem relay, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
| | | One of the more creative and moving responses to the Olympics in China this year is a poem relay, initiated by writers and members of International PEN. The poem June, was written by Shi Tao, who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for sending to pro democracy websites a government directive for Chinese media to downplay the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests.
You may recall in 2004 Shi Tao was identified when Yahoo! turned over his email account to the authorities. Charged with “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities,” Shi Tao now faces the next decade in prison. His poem June is his memorial of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
June
By Shi Tao
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